thelegion | [Video, post-plots]

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[Video, post-plots]

Morning, culture lovers.

[Someone's in a chipper mood. Might have something to do with the fact that she's in the sim room, sitting alongside an oversized motorcycle that is in no way compensating for anything.]

So, I've been talking things over with the techs and Brainiac 5, and I've decided to simply open up Anywhere Machine access to my timeline for all Legion members. I just ask that you keep it to training purposes. If you try to nose into my private life, well. I don't really have one. You'll get bored. Sorry.

[She makes an adjustment and holo displays pop up around her. Dates, times, locations, what looks like an options list. Sharp-eyed viewers will see that the dates seem to be color coded.]

Using some algorithms that Brainiac 5 set up for me to account for Legion training standards, along with my own estimations, I've sectioned off portions of my life that I feel would be... instructive. Either to hone investigative skills, practice medicine, brush up on your rescue skills, enhance your understanding of stealth, or simply enhance your understanding of conflict. I've also encoded a number of these events with content warnings. I've handled nearly every form of crime you care to mention and consoled a number of victims. Some of you just aren't prepared for that, so please keep in mind your own limitations and read through the warnings before you engage.

[More adjustments are made. Holograms of her, her pistol, and the motorcycle pop up.]

If you should attempt a sim scenario, you'll get three options. One is to simply follow in my steps and see how things were handled. You'll have the option to pause and get context for anything you have questions for, rewind, or use any filters you'd like. Another is to go through it as a Judge, temporarily refusing to acknowledge your powers in favor of the full experience. [For some people, to put their money where their mouths are and show her a better way to handle things with her limitations.] If you decide to go this route, I would strongly suggest reading Dredd's Comportment first. The things you learn there might make things much easier for you. You'll be given the tools of a Judge, such as the lie detector, the Lawmaster motorcycle, the Lawgiver Mk II, and the helmet, especially valuable for its vision modes. When you arrest someone, you will be expected to sentence them on the spot, so I've compiled a common list of offenses and their usual sentences. At your discretion, of course, but if you're going that far you might as well get into the spirit of the thing.

[She filters through a few, laying them over the camera to display herself in each mode. Ultrasound. Infrared. Night vision. Killshot percentages. Disabling shot suggestions.]

Finally, you get the option to simply go in as yourself. Since you're still taking 'my' place, you won't be immediately targeted for illegal vigilante activities, and your powers will be treated as something usual. Brainiac 5 wished me to stress that he created the sim rooms and they're able to function with almost any powerset, including the psychic ones.

We talked about incentives and came to an agreement that passing out stickers for participation would likely be the most acceptable way to go about things.

[She grins again and holds up a roll of stickers covered in gold stars.]

Never say I don't keep you in mind.

In closing, I'll be happy to discuss any questions or concerns you might have about this. I haven't made the decision lightly, but I do believe that it could offer some... 'real world' incentives that other scenarios might not. Everything you will see is as raw and true as it can be, and everyone you will see was, or is, a real person, so keep those things in mind. This isn't one of the programmed sims where we rescue crash test dummies.

[She cuts out, but the links to The Comportment of a Judge, by J. Dredd and the list of dates remain up. Skimming through them, some scenarios are only minutes long, others hours or days. There's very few 'off' times, with only about four days coming up if someone skims back five years. In the past two years, a number of 'Council Meetings' take up chunks of her days during various weeks, but every other time slice is split into investigation, travel, interrogation, combat, escort, and chase sections. Three stretches of time are unusual. One is marked 'Chaos Day and Recovery', with the lead up to it being nearly entirely 'investigation' and the days surrounding it marked entirely as 'combat' or 'rescue'. Another is marked 'Block Judge Duty' and seems to be split into investigation, combat, and 'court duties'. The final one is marked 'Tour of Duty' and lasts for months on end, with 'training' making up the vast majority of her time.

Only fifteen minutes is relegated for sleep every day. An hour or two for meals. That remains standard over the past eight or nine years, at which point it suddenly switches to a more structured thing. Life at the Academy of Law. Much of the time is listed as 'training' for various things, except full nights of sleep, and it reaches back eleven years until she's five years old. She's stopped accounting for her time at that point.]

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It's illegal, so of course it happens for one reason or another. Some people are just that bored, or that desperate for money.

[She waits politely for him to stop with the tangents. Of course she disapproves of keeping the people who buy from the cops, they can detox in custody as well as they could while free and there needs to be some punishment for breaking the law. Even then, the cubes have trained medical personnel who know how to handle withdrawal symptoms and can help alleviate them.

But finally he accepts the theoreticals of her scenario rather than explaining to her what she already knows.]

There's the difference, you see. Where I'm from, sugar is recognized as a highly addictive substance on the same levels as cocaine, marijuana, zziz, crystal meth, and comic books. It's harmful overall to the human body and, while there are some benefits, they don't balance out what sugar can do to you. I'm in as much of a rush to expose myself to that as you are to find a razor blade and a mirror.

[Besides, sugar tastes disgusting. So overwhelmingly sweet.]

It's minor to you, but it's serious to me.

It's badminton. Like people could put a bomb inside a baseball, but no one does! Maybe it's happened once - we get a lot of crazy stuff going on, but it's not something that's been repeated.

[ Of course she would. Her world is cruel and intensely regulated, and she exists to make people color in the lines and nowhere else. He almost sees her point, and he jerks into a more upright position after the suggestion of a razor blade and a mirror. He knows what she means, though. But...]

… comic books?

A lot of things in your world are somewhat... smaller and tamer, it seems. Citizens are stupid, bored, and desperate for anything to fill their time with. They have a capacity to be good, but it's so much easier for them to turn on one another instead.

[That was an interesting reaction. He didn't show the signs of a drug user. Shaving accident, maybe? Something else? If she were at home, she'd look at his medical records, but here... Well. It might not be that important.

...She files the reaction away, in any case.]

Often too thrilling. Gives the cits ideas. That's not really that bad, considering what pops up in movies or television, but they often go too far. What's worse is that comic book pushers will start the juves off cheap. A free comic book day at first, then charging a few creds for the next issue and the next, but once the victims are hooked they start increasing the prices and adding in crossover events, forcing them to buy up other mags as well to learn the backstories and figure out what's going on.

Kids can't afford that. Soon their allowances end up going dry and they inevitably end up turning to crime in order to buy their comic books. Soon, a good pusher has an entire army of young men and women who are jumping to rob, cheat, or assault other citizens in order to afford the next part of the story.

Comic book distributors are leeches on society.

I guess this is probably a really bad time to point out that in our universe they not only have comic books, but they make comics about real superheroes. There's this company called Marvel.

I almost got one, but they decided to run with one about a cartoon mouse instead.

Ugh.

Legitimate question, and I'm not judging here. I don't know your world. All I know is you've made it clear it's pretty rough.

But has anyone back in your world considered that maybe kids wouldn't resort to petty crime over stories, if they had something worthwhile to do?

It sounds to me like those kids just need direction. They're probably looking for stories that have meaning, right? Same reason those comics exist back home in my world -- entertainment, sure, but it's a mix of people trying to make sense of living in a world as weird as ours, and them liking stories about heroism and altruism and all that good stuff because it's...it's just something that's worthwhile.

Has anyone in your world considered taking those kids and having them do stuff that might help people? So they can feel like they're doing things as good as in those stories?

What, like the Scouts? We've got those, and other youth programs besides. They're mostly good programs, for the ones who can afford it and get the support that they need from their parents.

It's the support from their parents that's the problem. So many juves end up looking for a support network and their parents fail to provide proper guidance, so they end up hooking up with juve gangs. It's especially a problem in blocks where gang membership is practically tradition, with juves being in the junior gangs while the 'dults carry on in the main.

What else is there to do, though? In your world? What is there to do that's...not tv and watching the sex olympics? What ways are there to build things or explore new things or fix things? That all those people can do instead? It sounds likes you've got a whole "opiate of the masses" thing going on. Lots of distractions.

But do you still have underwater exploration? Space travel? People trying to understand particle physics just for the hell understanding it?

Art? Like real art. Like the kind that makes people stand there for a half hour just taking it in?

[His tone is searching, not condemnatory or judgmental. He's trying to find out more about her world, about the alternatives people have.]

Edited 2017-04-21 02:03 (UTC)

[It's the tone that keeps her from snapping at him. What sort of society functions without those things? But at least he's asking.]

Almost any traditional form of entertainment is legal, within reason. Football, baseball, basketball, the old sports and the new ones. Eating competitions are popular. We've got books, movies, television, and, yes, art. Within the bounds of good taste. Religion is big. We encourage what hobbies are safe.

These are valuable sources of entertainment and employment. We'd have to be mad to ignore them entirely.

As for space travel, we have many colonies beyond our solar system. There was a bit of a war recently, but the Zhind have been beaten back and the rebelling 'free' colonies were... dealt with by the SJS.

[And boy, didn't that leave a taste in her mouth. Especially when she read how close they came to crippling Earth's entire civilization to make a statement.]

Nix on the underwater exploration, however. The oceans are too polluted for most. The Atom War, as well as the various nuclear missiles that have exploded in the Black Atlantic since then.

[She's mentioned leisure, yes, but not work.]

What kind of jobs do people get to have? Is it like where everyone gets it assigned or do they get to choose what line of work they get into?

[If he sounds like someone trying to trouble-shoot a civilization like someone would troubleshoot a broken PC, he is a little bit. It's not the first time he's prodded his nose in and asked about a world that's rebuilding itself after catastrophe.]

Unemployment's down to 95%.

[Helps when so many citizens are dead.]

Jobs are... very difficult to come by and jealously kept. Since the introduction of robots and automation, it's been cheaper and, often, safer than hiring actual humans to do manual labor. Many citizens refuse to work more than a ten hour work week, anyway. And those that do are at higher risk for Future Shock Syndrome, often when they're replaced or they see something in the course of the job that causes them to go Futsie.

[Honestly, the probing is just such a welcome change from the usual screaming, accusations, and dirty looks that she doesn't mind talking so much.]

The most common jobs are, of course, the ones that require the human touch. Mattress testers, chefs, window models, pencil pushes, tax collectors, artists, designers, and the like. But there's never enough to go around.

Window modeling? Mattress-testing?

Blue blazes, no wonder they're going stir-crazy.

[He still doesn't sound judgmental. It's not her fault there's a 95% unemployment rate. She -- and the system she serves -- are just the result.]

Your society reached nearly full automation and didn't do anything to compensate? There are some non-Earth societies back home that've completely collapsed over less.

Edited 2017-04-21 04:26 (UTC)

There are other jobs, this is just off the top of my head.

I will say that, when I was exiled to the townships, there was less trouble. Still trouble, but less of it. Of course, there were also very few robots and only a few thousand citizens to deal with. And the muties were willing to work.

[Not that they had a better option.]

But, yes. We have to be careful when someone announces a job opening, to prevent riots. Though, if they're prisoners, it also takes them out of the running for jobs. Which is a plus.

[If a poor one.]

I'm gonna assume "muties" are mutants, and just...politely point out that we have some people here who are mutants. And that "muties" back home for us is pretty much a slur.

[He's trying to be diplomatic about it. Different worlds, and what matters most is how she reacts to him saying this.]

So I'm going to just have to ask you to maybe use 'mutants.' And as long as you're okay with that, we'll just...keep on with this conversation, because I'm curious about your world. But I'd be a bad friend if I didn't point that out.

Edited 2017-04-21 05:05 (UTC)

At least the mutants like to work, then.

[It's just a minor change, after all.]

You've mentioned nukes and big cities, and townships and mutants (I'm assuming the thoroughly-irradiated kind) so I'm thinking everyone in the cities is all crammed in, right?

Give people a little space and some room to build and actually do something productive and it makes a world of difference. There's a reason New Yorkers are so angry all the time back home -- cram a few million people in one small space and toss an alien invasion at 'em every other week -- and a meta fight every other day -- and it makes people a teeny bit cranky.

These townships still irradiated?

Edited 2017-04-21 05:31 (UTC)

Something like that. Are you familiar with the term 'arcology'? The vast majority of our citizens live in blocks, which are largely arcologies that fit about fifty thousand citizens each.

Thankfully, we do have a bit of space. The Chaos Day rubble is still out and about, but we're cleaning things up and there's no longer a housing shortage. We range from... Pardon, my pre-Mega-City geography isn't the best, but I believe Vermont down to northern Virginia. So there is some room.

[Namely thanks to those hundreds of millions who died. Hurray?]

Yes. Not as much as they could be, they're not in the heart of the Cursed Earth, but the fallout from the various nuclear attacks won't be going away any time soon. We selected the most habitable areas we could find. Had to. We were exiling cits.

That said, I still got rad-rash. Got sent back to the Meg for it. Mutants have a higher radiation tolerance, though.

Look, comics don't lead people to street gangs where I'm from. They just don't. If anything they give kids an outlet for their energy, or put dreams in their heads of making a difference -- in a world where they can.

[He tries to find the words.]

Thing is, your world could be that way again, too. Where comics are just stories and not a gateway drug. The tech you could take back from this universe -- I mean they terraform here -- could make that possible. And Brainiac is smart enough to custom-build things they probably haven't even dreamed up yet -- and I bet he would, if it'd make someplace better. You know, when this is all over and he's got less on his plate.

[He's getting off subject.]

I guess what I'm trying to say is, some of us keep butting heads with you because everything is so rigid where you come from, but the things that make people think it needs to be that rigid don't have to stay the same, and if you ever want any help with things that might make your world better, where it doesn't have to be that kinda place, some of us might have some ideas that could help.

[He shrugs.]

I fought in a war that killed entire planets. I've seen more than one world have to rebuild itself out of the ashes. I know a lot of the pitfalls, and I've seen some of the good ideas, too.

Edited 2017-04-21 06:09 (UTC)

[Vance has been keeping track of these conversations. He does tend to keep an eye on things, even if he doesn't always have much to add.]

[This time, though, he at least has to add something to what Rich is saying.]

I can honestly say that my life would have been very, very different if comic books hadn't been available to me.

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thedreamisdead - 2017-04-23 01:34 (UTC) - Expand

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sir_vancelot - 2017-04-23 11:59 (UTC) - Expand

I've been looking into their terraforming.

[She's got multiple hard drives of data stored in her room. She's copied the entire Legion library, even if she hasn't read it. Something would be valuable.]

I've noted people tend to clash heads with me more easily than the actual soldiers and murderers on the team. I'm not sure if it's because it's because I wear a badge or because they're too lazy to find out the facts. You know you're one of the few to actually discuss my world and not simply tell me how I'm wrong right off the bat?

[Say you believe in instant justice and suddenly all you get is people talking about how many you kill rather than how many lives you save.

Granted, she's not without sin there, but Locus is a criminal. The only other time she's told someone they were wrong was when she called people out on not spending every moment of their day training rather than unnecessary things like sleep. Or team bonding. Or resting.]

I don't mind a fair trade of ideas and an honest discussion. But I'll tell you one thing, it's only professionalism and the fact that the multiverse is at stake that I'm still here. I've had it up to here with people assuming they know everything about what my people do without trying to understand what makes it necessary.

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iamresponding - 2017-04-23 02:50 (UTC) - Expand

I don't know if it's smaller and tamer. Things get crazy all the time - I just don't talk about it. Like "people who can balance a skyscraper sideways on top of two other skyscrapers and that's one of the good guys" crazy. When you're in that world… comics and sugar consumption kind fall off the map.

[ They don't sweat the small stuff, in other words, but Robbie thinks twice about saying that. Eventually, when it gets to a genetic level, suddenly everyone starts sweating the microscopic world. There's definitely a much larger gap where the consensus is "enh, it's not hurting anyone." Reality tv, Mountain Dew Code Red, graphic novels, reruns of 227… they all fall into this abyss of whatever tickles your pickle. ]

Like Rich said, we have comic books based on real heroes. If it's titillating, so's the nightly news. There's no new ideas that they're giving people. I don't think it's inciting anything. There's no Comic Book Bandits holding up bodegas to afford the latest Captain America. If your allowance doesn't cover it, you see if the neighbors'll give you a buck for taking out the trash every week or mowing their lawn.

[ The closest they probably get to the Comic Book Bandits is the Yancey Street Gang, but they're just… weird, as far as Robbie can tell. ]

I don't think you're giving them enough credit. The citizens, not the comic books. Okay, the comic books too, 'cause there's a lot of kids who won't read anything else for fun. But I meant the people. If you don't let them have an outlet for their energy, they're going to find one anyway. Take it from the kid who used to sneak out of the house and commute to New York City to fight crime: if you don't let a person do something relatively harmless, they're going to find a way to do it anyway.

And it's going to be ten times bigger and crazier because they feel trapped in their boring old life. I wouldn't be in the army of pulp afictionados, but you make it sound like its that, the Pornolympics, or the worst game of badminton ever.

I guess I just don't know what everyone else can do.

[ That Beeny herself can't do anything sort of hangs in the air. ]

Edited 2017-04-21 02:32 (UTC)

We do allow them outlets. Art. Education. Sports, within reason. Hobbies, so long as they remain legal. Games. Things like that. But they get out of control.

[She waves her hand, thinking, then nods.]

Sometimes a fad will sweep through the city. We call them crazes. Some of them are harmless, such as the Pacne craze. Intelligent zits that acted like some ancient video game on your face or back. Or 'Bottomless' pants, which, well. Lost its seating when the original designer decided 'frontless' pants would be the next evolution.

And then you get crazes like personal weather machines, which started floods and caused tornadoes when you had fifty thousand citizens amplifying one another's weather alterations. Or bat-gliding, which ended in citizens crowding the skies and falling into traffic before we started regulating things.

[But she could go on forever about those things.]

Boredom, I could understand. But so many of them are stupid, almost willfully so, or have criminal tendencies and use these crazes to cover their crimes. There are outlets, it's just that the citizens take them to the absurd when they get the chance. We regulate things so harshly because we've seen the citizens take something innocent and cause disasters.

[ Robbie sticks two fingers in his mouth and whistles, and then he's insistently tapping the palm of one hand to the finger tips of the other, making a T. ]

Timeout, timeout, Beeny. We can come back to the hobbies and art and games, because that's cool and all, and maybe we'll circle back around to why you're saying your citizens are basically an entire population of gimmicky super villains, but I really need to zoom in on one little thing in all that, or I'm going to lose sight of it in the mess.

[ In all of that, he has heard one thing, just glanced over so casually that he wants to add style points. ]

You made a pun. I heard it, it's on video, and I will treasure it forever. I'll put it in a flower pot and water it daily, and it will blossom into impatiens of humor.

[ He wipes a tear that isn't there. ]

I'm so proud.

I guess we're just going to forget all the times I've punned at you and you've called me out on that?

[She does it. A lot. Usually when he's angry at her, though, so that might be something.]

I never claimed I was humorless.

It's either that or we can continue being shitty and not appreciating anything the other person says. Your call.

[ When he's genuinely upset, it's very hard to be take 5 to give some love for a sense of humor - especially since he just expects people to have a sense of humor. ]

No, but - no offense - it's not what I'd call a defining trait.

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